Kevin James Says Killing T.V. Wife On ‘Kevin Can Wait’ To Bring Back Leah Remini Was ‘Needed For The Show’
Kevin James says Kevin Can Wait “needed” a major change that saw his television wife killed off in order to bring back longtime comedy partner Leah Remini, predicting that the show would have been canceled without the overhaul.
Though the show enjoyed good ratings in its first season, James said they decided to make the major change that saw Donna Gable killed off and Remini joining the show as a full-time cast member. James and Remini played husband and wife on King of Queens for nine seasons between 1998 and 2007 and still have strong on-screen chemistry. Remini joined Kevin Can Wait as a guest star in its first season, but joined the full cast for the start of Season 2 with Kevin’s wife being killed off.
James added that the actress who played Gable, Erinn Hayes, was not originally part of the show’s plans. Kevin Can Wait initially showed him as a single father, but producers decided to give him a wife and three children.
Kevin James said he knew that fans of the show would be taken aback by the drastic change, but believed it was necessary for the show’s sake.
“I get that people are like ‘Whoa, why would you do this?’ But it really felt like a thing like this was needed for this show to drive forward,” James said (via the New York Daily News). “Now, I have to deal with my daughter in a different way, and she’s gonna go to college, or one’s getting married, or the holidays. And it deals with things in a different, weightier way.”
Without the change, Kevin James said he did not think Kevin Can Wait would have survived another season.
“The plot of the show didn’t have enough drive,” James said. “If we got through a second season, I wouldn’t see us getting through a third one. We were literally just running out of ideas.”
The sudden shift in the storyline for Kevin Can Wait has been divisive for fans, with many happy to see Hayes gone and Remini taking on a full-time role but others critical of the move. Some have taken to social media to say that they will not be watching the show in its second season, and others hoped it would fail after making such a major and controversial shift in direction after just one season.
But Remini has publicly stood up for Hayes, praising her in a chat with fans on Twitter.
She is lovely and funny. And I was looking forward to working with her again. She is on another show on amazon. So blessings to us all
— Leah Remini (@LeahRemini) September 26, 2017
Kevin James said it was not clear how much Kevin Can Wait might revisit his wife’s death, and it is not clear whether Leah Remini will become a love interest for the newly widowed character.
[Featured Image by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images]
